


Bidding on Love

by JustYourFriendlyNeighborhoodFicWriter



Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Black Market Auctions, F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi, hotel au, my guilty pleasure, truly I have no self control left
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24368446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustYourFriendlyNeighborhoodFicWriter/pseuds/JustYourFriendlyNeighborhoodFicWriter
Summary: Cordelia King was just a maid working in the newly rebranded Avengers Plaza. A new hotel in New York that was quickly becoming the talk of the city. Everyday was the same; school, work, study, eat, sleep, repeat. But when she finds herself being put up for auction, her life would descend into the world of chaos. Being bought by the auctions hosts, she’ll find the hotel is not everything she thought it was.





	1. Chapter 1

Her alarm went off loudly from across her room, Cordelia reaching to her night stand to try and shut it off. She reach around before whining, slowly pushing herself up off. She sighed, pushing her curls out of her face as she glared at the blaring alarm clock across the room. She cursed herself for doing that, but it ensured she'd wake up on time for work. She reluctantly rolling out of bed, walking over and shutting it off before going to wash up for the day. She brushed her teeth, pulling her curly mess of hair into a ponytail before she got dressed in her maid uniform. This had been her morning routine for the past 2 years of working for Avengers Plaza, New York's finest and most luxurious hotel. 93 floors of rooms, shops, bars and more in what use to be known as Stark Tower. That was until Tony Stark sold it to his good friend, Natasha, to use as her third expansion to her hotel line. 

Cordelia poured herself some cereal, downing it as quickly as she could without choking before she grabbed her keys, phone and bag and rushed out the door. If she was late, Dottie would never let her hear the end of it. She smiled when she spotted Peggy walking into the elevator, slipping in past the door. "Peggy. Good morning."

"Morning." She replied, smiling toward her friend. Peggy was another maid at the plaza that Cordy met her first day. They'd become instant friends from day one, both having it with "Snotty Dottie". Yes, that was actually their name for her. "You look exhausted, up all night again?" Peggy added, bending down to get a better look at her face. 

"You can tell?" Cordelia asked, turning to look at herself in the reflection of the metal walls. She sighed, noting the bags under eyes brown eyes. "I was studying all night. I have an exam tomorrow after work, I tried to fit in extra study time." She confessed, looking back to Peggy who laughed. 

"You'll do fine. You're probably one of the smartest girls I've met." She assured her, resting a hand on her shoulder. Cordelia smiled to her friend, walking out of the elevator with her once it stopped. They made their way out to the busy New York streets as they made the five minute walk to the hotel. They chatted the whole way there, making plans for dinner together that night. 

"Oh crap." Cordelia muttered as they stopped at the doors to the hotel. "The fundraiser is this week, isn't it?" She asked, looking back at Peggy who gave her a sympathetic smile. 

"Afraid so." She sighed, walking after her to walk to the locker room and drop off their things. "At least you don't work in the fundraiser yourself. I have to attend to all those rich bastards and give them drinks and food with a smile." She spat bitterly, putting in the combination to her locker. 

"Yeah. But Dottie isn't gonna let up on me." Cordelia sighed, putting her bag and things into her locker. "She is going to give me entire floors to clean on my own. The floors in this place are huge too." And like on cue Dottie walked in with her usual smug smile. She acted as if she ran the staff, which Coulson or Pepper rarely caught. Cordelia mentally groaned as Dottie walked over to her, holding out her schedule sheet with a devilish smile. 

"Nice to see you into work on time for once, Cordy. Thought I'd reward you with being responsible for putting the spa specials in all the rooms from floors 1 to 10." She told her, Corey could feel the joy Dottie took in making her life at work a living nightmare. She reluctantly took it, forcing a smile on her face.

"Thanks..." She muttered, as Dottie turned to leave. 

"Right....now the hostessing seems a lot less painful compared to your work." Peggy noted, closing her locker. "Sorry."

"It's whatever....at least I'll be busy." Cordelia tried to keep positive, walking out with Peggy. They waved each other off as Cordelia made her way toward the elevator, reading over the list she had to do. She stopped when she noticed a couple arguing as they waited for an elevator, the woman slapping the man before throwing what looked like a masquerade mask at him and running off. Cordelia moved out of the way, watching as the woman left before looking back at the man. Her eyes widened in surprised when she realized just who it was. It was Tony Stark, the former owner of the building she stood in. No wonder the woman left. He rubbed his cheek, picking up the mask with a sigh. He looked up, his eyes meeting Cordelia's, who quickly looked away. She mentally cursed herself again, hoping to god he didn’t notice her staring. Too bad for her, luck was not on her side. He pulled his signature smile as he walked up to her, bending down to try seeing her face better. 

"Well hello beautiful, who might you be?" He asked flirtatiously, flashing her a charming grin. Cordelia sighed, once again forcing a smile and looking up at him.

"Um....just...just a maid here at the hotel." She told him, looking back at the elevator and praying for it to move faster. 

"You? I'd of thought a model with looks like that." He told her, leaning against the wall. He glanced down at the mask in hand, fiddling with it as he spoke. “And since I'm out a date to this party, I'd also hope you'd accompany me." 

"Oh, no no. I'm sorry, Mr.Stark but I-" Before she could finish, he had looped his arm through hers and walked into the other now open elevator. She wanted to protest, but it was pointless the moment the doors closed. 

”Nuh uh, no buts. You'll have fun." He assured, leaned back on the wall. She couldn’t exactly argue, stuck in the elevator heading toward a party she never in her life thought she would see.

It wasn’t a long ride up to the fundraiser, the elevator doors sliding open to reveal a very extravagant room filled with people she’d only ever seen on tv and magazines. She stood in awe, thinking this might all be a dream. She was still in bed, sound asleep and probably just late for work. What pulled her back to reality was the sudden absence of a very talkative man behind her. She turned to see he was long gone, probably eyeing down a much more willing girl to be his arm candy. She sighed, now having to find her own way back down to the lower levels and maneuver through a sea of the rich and famous. She had a schedule to keep, and a Dottie to keep appeased. 

Though, as she tries to make her way through the crowd...she was finding it very difficult to not get distracted and lost in the moment. All these people were really just mere floors up from where she worked everyday. Some she recognized as regulars to the hotel, others she recognized from movies and tv shows she watched in her spare time from work and school. She knew the fundraiser brought in big names and faces, but never in a million years did she think it would include stars of this high ranking. 

“You look lost.” She was pulled from her little bubble when a fairly tall, blond man stood before her looking lost. She quickly went into work mode, straightening her uniform and smiling up at him almost as bright as the lights above them. 

“Oh, um, no! Not at all.” She lied. She could tell he knew she was lying, by the knowing grin that was forming in his perfect face. She really needed to get out of there. “Is there anything I can help you with?” 

“Not that I’m sure you’d know. Your uniform is that of the maids, right?” Caught red handed. “Let me guess, ran into the hotels infamous, Tony Stark?” 

“How did you-“

“He does that often. You wouldn’t be the first girl, or in your case maid, that’s made it to the fundraiser and ended up lost.” He chuckled, evidently finding her situation amusing. 

‘He probably helped half the maids leave the ballroom then. I wonder if he could help me,’ she thought to herself, hoping her assumptions might be true. “If that’s the case, I know there’s a door to the back rooms somewhere...but I can’t actually seem to find it. Would you by chance know where it might be?” He was her last hope of quickly getting out in time to get her job done. If she didn’t do it soon, she feared the wrath Dottie would rain down on her. Probably gym duty again. Or cleaning the party rooms. Or worse, the after party kitchen duty alone. Just the thought brought dread to her mind. 

“Sure. I’m Steve Rogers, by the way.” He flashed a charming smile, probably one he gives all the girls when introducing himself. She nodded back, smiling shortly back. His name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. “It’s back this way, follow me.” He turned, weaving his way swiftly through the crowd. The way he moved was graceful, obvious that he was an expert on moving through a sea of bodies. She could hardly keep up, and if she didn’t have any self control, she’d have grabbed onto him to keep up. It surely didn’t help that he was probably a good food taller, or close to it making his strides longer and faster.

When they finally did manage to reach the door, she felt herself out of breath. It was either from the nervous feeling she had that she’d have gotten even more lost and have lost him or the close proximity she was within many, many top ranking humans dressed in their best. She didn’t wanna ruin anything, she already had student loans to pay off she couldn’t add expensive dry cleaning of million dollar clothing to that debt. “There’s suppose to be an elevator behind there, should get you where you need to go.” 

“Thank you.” She offered a grateful smile, waving quickly as he turned to leave to disappear quickly into the crowd. But not before telling her to be careful if she was going to the basement. He didn’t give any follow up or explanations either. With that confusing note in mind, she made her way through the door to the elevator and started her descent to the storage room in the basement. “Should be sub-floor 2 where everything is....if the specials are all together already that is.” She sighed, knowing today would be a VERY long day.

She nearly ran out when the elevator doors slowly slid open, trying to calculate exactly how long it would take her to finish gathering and placing every spa special. It’s was 10 floors, though not every room was getting the special. She groaned, pulling the list out while she walked and read over how many she would exactly need. Muttering to herself, not watching where it was she was walking, she felt herself bump into what she has assumed was a wall or box. It causes her to tumble and fall flat on her ass. “Ow!” She rubbed her lower back, looking around to see what it was she possibly broke. Her eyes landed on a large wooden crate surrounded by 3 large and very scary looking men. 

“Shit!”

“What are we gonna tell the boss now? She’ll kill us for this!” Cordelia quickly rose to her feet, anxious to see what exactly it was they were worried about. A glass statue stood within the crate, or at least what remained of one. Pieces were shattered and others split in half. And with it being in a crate, she assumed it was expensive and for the hotel. She would soon learn she was wrong.

“We? It was this girl who broke it!” One of the men exclaimed, gesturing rather angrily at Cordy. She flinched, feeling sweat begin to bead on her forehead. He wasn’t wrong. She wasn’t exactly watching herself, but in her defense no one is ever down there! 

“I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t expect anyone to be down here and I was in a hurry...”

“Save it! You’re gonna have to pay for this.” The man near yelled at her. As if her day couldn’t get any worse. “Guys, grab her. We don’t have time to tell the boss we ain’t got the statue for action. We’ll just put her up instead.”

“Auction? What are you-“ but before Cordelia even had the chance to question the men, she felt hands grab her arms and start dragging her off. “Hey! Let me go!” She struggled against the men, trying to fight them off to no avail. One was quickly growing tired of her, grabbed something from his pocket and placing it over her face. Next thing she knew she was losing consciousness, with only one fear in mind. 

‘What were they gonna do to me?’


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up with her hands tied back with a thick, tight cloth. Her eyes covered with a nearly transparent stripe of fabric, she assumed to hide her face from the rest of the patrons who were sat out before her. It was a stadium, or auditorium, filled front to back with people in extravagant clothing and masks to hide their faces. It was a mix of masquerade masks and full face masks. Just beyond them sat a giant screen with numbers flashing on it. Her head was still groggy, the words that were being yelled or perhaps spoken around her sounding distant. Were they numbers or words? She couldn’t remember what exactly got her put in this position, nor what was even happening around her, but she knew one thing. This couldn’t be good.

It was all happening so quickly, yet so slowly. As if time was stood still, but put on fast forward. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and she could begin to feel her breath quicken. She was in a panic; a scene in front of her unfamiliar and the events unknown. As she slowly came to, her mind clear, she was beginning to understand her exact position. She was being sold at an auction. The numbered cards in the patrons hands now visible as her eyes began to adjust to the lighting. How? How was an auction being held do secretly within the walls of the hotel? Did the owners know? The managers? 

She was jerked from her thoughts as the man she didn’t even realize was stood beside her yelled out the winning bid.

“Sold to seat 120 for 5 million!” 

5 million...

She was just purchased at an auction for 5 million. It appeared the crowd was just as shocked at that number as she was, murmuring and whispers erupting among the crowd. She was escorted backstage following the close of the auction. She was told to stay put until the buyers came to claim her, orders she was in no hurry to disobey. Her body didn’t want to listen to her thoughts that screamed for her to run. She was frozen in place, shock and fear coursing through her. Thoughts kept running through her mind, wondering what was going to become of her? Was she just going to go missing? Would she ever see her family again? Her friends? Would she be used in ways that she would rather not consider, or maybe used as some slave to carry out their every fantasy and desire? She felt her knees begin to give way, her arms quickly catching her body by pressing up against the wall for stability. Everything was beginning to feel far away again, the chatter and shuffling of people behind the curtains close behind her fading slowly to nothing. Sometime in her panic, she’d begun crying. She didn’t notice till she was pulled back to reality by a familiar voice. It was soft, and soothes her less than calm mind. He wore a mask like the others, but the clothes he wore were unmistakably the same as that of Steve Rogers’ from earlier. 

“Are you alright?” Was all he’d said to her, and despite knowing the gentle giant was undoubtedly apart of these illegal affairs....she found herself wanting to desperately cling to him for safety or comfort or something of the sort. His presence alone made her feel safer than she has in the last hour.....or however long it’d been...

“We’ll take that answer as a no.” A much more gruff, deep voice spoke behind him. He was not familiar. He stood near the same height as Rogers, hair pulled back into a messy bun. His mask was covering all of his face rather than half like Steve’s. Black. No details and only consisted of two slits where the eyes would be. His suit mimicked the color of the mask, which give him a much more.....sinister presence. If she had the strength to, she’d no doubt have backed away from him. 

“I can’t blame her, waking up to find yourself being sold off...” Steve’s sentence trailed off, his voice holding sympathy. He reached his hand out, almost like one would to a scared cat cornered. It was inviting, asking for her to take it without him having to ask. She hesitated, reaching out slowly before she took his hand in hers and began to follow them both out of the auction hall. Black Mask lead them to an elevator, waiting for her and Steve to enter sliding a card in the card reader and the doors shutting. 

The trip up, which felt like hours, lead them into the penthouse suit. Well, more like the living room which lived just below the penthouse which was up the staircase ahead of her. In the center of the room sat 5 people. A red headed woman, who she recognized as the owner of the hotel, stood from her spot and began walking toward the three of them. 

“So your the replacement they got for my statue.” She spoke, her tone feeling emotionless as she examined Cordelia up and down. She sighed, looking annoyed as she ran a hand through her hair. “A mistake on their end, a costly one at that.” 

“Aw, don’t be like that, Nat. It isn’t like she put herself up there. Can’t blame her.” Steve pointed out, possibly trying to keep her very apparent annoyance from getting worse. “It isn’t like she asked for this. Let’s just....sit down and talk about what we have to do.”

“Could make her disappear.” The masked man muttered, just low enough to be hardly audible. Cordelia slightly turned her head toward him, noticing he’d removed his mask at some point. His facial features fit the feeling he gave off. The only bright and remotely kind part of him being his eyes. Blue in hue, they were practically mesmerizing. She noted if she wasn’t currently being possibly held captive, she wouldnt be as terrified of him. 

“Sit and talk? There’s nothing really to discuss. She’ll remain here till we can figure out who she is, and what to do with her.” Natasha’s rather angry words pulled her attention back at her, causing her to tense up once more.

“Don’t bother.” He much more suave voice interrupted, the source peaking his head out from behind her. Tony Stark. Not a surprise he was involved. “I recognize her from earlier. She works here. A maid, was it?” He asked Cordi, her nodding hesitantly. She didn’t exactly want to answer them, but the fear of what might happen if she did was telling her listen and don’t speak. “She’d definitely get noticed if she disappeared in the middle of her shift and never went home.” He added, a smug grin forming on his face at Natasha’s obvious anger. 

“Then we make sure she won’t talk.” The blue eyed man added, making his way toward the couches that sat in the center of the room. “If she can guarantee her silence, I don’t see an issue with letting her go.”

“And if she doesn’t? We’ll be S.O.L. I’ve worked too hard to have my patrons be exposed and my auctions ruined.” Natasha spat back, her eyes following him as he lazily sat on the couch, loosening his tie. “Plus we just put in 5 million for her. I’m not wasting my money saving the girl and not at least find a few uses.” 

“Alright...” Blue eyes sighed, tossing his tie onto the center table. “But if you don’t wanna have a missing persons case, I’d highly suggest you figure out how to explain her presence up here or her disappearance.” 

“Bucky’s right. Even if we let her go, which we should because we can’t just keep her hostage-“

“Hostage?” Natasha scoffed. “Steve, we bought her. And while I made the selling of people off limits, and there will be consequences for those who put her up there...the purchase I made is still valid.”

“Fine....but we can’t keep her up here forever like a prisoner and you know it. I’m sure she will be more than happy to keep quiet. But we have to at least let her go home or make up some excuse as to why she is coming and going from your penthouse suite. It’ll raise questions if we don’t and I don’t think you want that kind of attention.” At that, Natasha went quiet. Cordelia hated that she agreed, wishing that maybe he’d persuade her to letting him go. That did not look like it would be the case.

“Fine.” Is all Natasha said before she walked away, making her way up the staircase nearby and presumably to her room. Everyone in the room watched as she did, before turning all their attention back to Cordelia. 

“Guess that’s a tomorrow issue.” Steve sighed, pulling off his mask and finally turning around to look at Cordi himself. “And until she decides what we’re suppose to do....you’ll have to stay up here. Why don’t I take you to one of our empty rooms, you must be exhausted.” He offered her a small, soft smile which she only partially returned. Her voice, which felt as if it had disappeared completely, came back soft and quiet. 

“I would appreciate that....thank you.” She needed to rest. Sleep. Something. Anything. The shock, fear, and adrenaline were starting to dissipate and her body was growing heavier by the minute. She could collapse right now, if it wasn’t for the fact she had to follow Steve to what would become her room. He lead her to one of the executive suites, ones she’s only ever seen images of and told her he’d return with a change of clothes. When he left, all the strength left her body and she collapsed back onto one of the beds. Tears she didn’t know she still had began falling and she silently sobbed to herself, pulling herself into a hug and curling up on the mattress. What was to become of her now? She was bought by several of the hotels elites, with no signed of being let go. They would be deciding on what to do with her, and she didn’t even want to begin to image what they could possibly have in store. They proudly run auctions like this, they could run more than just an auction. They could be crime lords, sex traffickers or worse. As her consciousness began to drift, the ability to remain awake dwindling, she prayed to whatever god was above that they’d just let her go. 

“Please god, just let me go...”


End file.
